Red Velvet Cross Cupcakes ♥

I know it may sound super silly to some, but I believe that my mission in life is to share love to you through my cupcakes.

I break off pieces of my glittery heart and bake them inside everything I create.

(This hand drawn art is by Andrea Bills of Wisconsin, we are creating illustrations like this one for a children's book I am writing, more info here)

Before I made cupcakes, I was looking into doing philanthropist/missions work and traveling the world to help others, but my little God whisper told me to wait. That there was something else planned for me. So I did. I stopped and was still.  A year later.. I changed my name to Amanda Cupcake. 

So even if it seems quiet, you may want to listen to that inner whisper of yours. You never know where it will lead. My cupcakes are little philanthropists, healing hearts and making people smile.

So I thought this Easter I'd share a piece of Heaven with you:

Red Velvet Cross Cupcakes for Easter ♥

I chose red velvet cupcakes for this blog because red is very symbolic to the true meaning of Easter.  To make your own red velvet cupcakes, see the recipe at the end of this blog. ♥

To make the chocolate crosses you will need:

♥1 cookie sheet, lined with parchment paper

♥1 bag of dark chocolate candy melts (I like Make N Mold)

♥1 disposable piping bag

♥1 pair of scissors

♥A microwave proof bowl

♥...and a microwave!

1.  Line your cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. If you are not a freehand drawer with melted chocolate-sketch as many little crosses as you want to make on a sheet of parchment paper in advance.  These will be your cross templates!
3..  Open the bag of candy melts and dump into microwave proof bowl.
4.  Melt the candy melt wafers in your microwave, in 30 second increments. Stir in between increments. Do not over microwave or the candy melts will burn and get lumpy/impossible to work with.
5.  Once candy melts are smooth and warm, pour into your disposable piping bag. Cut a tiny hole at the end of your disposable piping bags. Using even pressure, pipe the melted chocolate onto your parchment paper in the shape of crosses.
6.  Once you have sketched all your crosses, place the cookie sheet in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes to make sure they harden. ♥ Place on top of your cupcakes like pictured above.

You can do the same thing, but draw hearts to symbolize "LOVE" out of red candy melts instead like my red velvet heart cupcakes! They look extra pretty with fudge frosting.  (see recipe below)

Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe,  for perfect cream cheese frosting swirls like these:

1 Cup softened butter

1 Cup softened cream cheese

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/4 Cup whole milk or heavy whipping cream

Appx 10 Cups of powdered sugar

Cream Butter, Cream Cheese, Milk, Vanilla and Heavy Whipping Cream using flat beater attachment in a stand mixer.  Gradually add powdered sugar until frosting peaks when touched.  To achieve heavenly frosting swirls like these, I used a 1A decorating tip (it has a large round hole at the end of it for the dreamiest of cupcake swirls).

Red Velvet Fudge Frosting, for perfect frosting swirls on top of red velvet cupcakes like these:

1 Cup softened butter

3/4 Cup of Hershey's Cocoa
1/4 Cup Buttermilk (just like what's in your red velvet cupcake)!
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4-6 cups powdered sugar

Cream Butter, Buttermilk, Cocoa, Vanilla Extract together using flat beater attachment in stand mixer.  Gradually add powdered sugar until you reach desired texture for piping fluffy swirls on top of red velvet cupcakes.  To achieve these flufy frosting swirls, I used a 1M decorating tip!

Bake-At-Home Red Velvet Cupcake Recipe, makes about 18 cupcakes.

My favorite red velvet cupcake recipe is from scratch, and I use one from scratch to sell my cupcakes at grocery stores.  However.. I came up with this easy bake at home version that you can try too that is pretty close to the authentic red velvet flavor you'll get in a from-scratch cupcake! You can even use the cream cheese frosting recipe above to make "Double Red Velvet" Cupcakes. Just replace the milk in the recipe with buttermilk and add Americolor Red Gel Paste to achieve the bright red color in the frosting! I used silver sugar crystalz as the glitter on the cupcake ♥  You can top any of the frosting swirls with the chocolate crosses or red hearts that you made.

Start with:  

1 box white cake mix

3 tablespoons cocoa

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1/2 cup canola oil

1 box of dry white chocolate instant pudding (3.9/4 oz)

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
4-6 tablespoons of Americolor Super Red Gel Color Paste

..and Bake!:
1.  Preheat oven to 325 and line cupcake pan with cupcake wrappers.

2.  Sift  white cake mix, cocoa, pudding in big bowl, set aside. (I like Betty Crocker the best)!

3.  Measure 1 1/2 cups buttermilk in liquid measuring cup, set aside.
4.  In stand mixer using flat beater attachment, whip eggs, extracts, and oil together until combined.
5.  Gradually alternate the addition of dry ingredients and buttermilk to creamed ingredients in stand mixer, scraping bowl down to the bottom to make sure all ingredients are included.
6.  Add Americolor Super Red Gel Color Paste to batter until you reach your desired level of redness.  If you don't want to use food coloring and you want to use an alternative, you can puree 3 medium sized beets and the buttermilk together in advance for a natural red color!

7.  Using an ice cream scoop, fill cupcake wrappers a little over 1/2 full.  Bake for appx 22-24 minutes or until cupcakes spring back up when you touch them.  Let them cool before frosting. ♥